Walt Whitman
The complete unexpurgated edition of all his poems, with his prose works and Mr.
Traubel's books about him as a further elucidation.
Walt Whitman is the only Optimist and perhaps the only prophet of Democracy one can read without shame. The magical beauty of his style at its best has not even yet received complete justice. He has the power of restoring us to courage and joy even under circumstances of aggravated gloom. He puts us in some indescribable manner en rapport" with the large, cool, liquid spaces and with the immense and transparent depths. 66 More than any he is the poet of passionate friendship and the poet of all those exquisite evasive emotions which arise when our loves and our regrets are blended with the presence of Nature.